The G.O.O.D. The B.O.B. and IT could get UGLY

You have to love Clint Eastwood even today. But enough. already. For ease and less crap to deal with I am leaving out all periods in acronyms. Besides periods are useless. Here comes the mail. This is about GOOD, BOB and how it can get Ugly. How many of you have ever tried to pack whatever vehicle or multiples of them you have with all the stuff you have collected over the years for that grand day when you are going to GOOD. Sure you may carry a BOB in the trunk or wherever but try loading everything and time yourself. Sure if you are just one lonely guy or girl you could manage it in short order. How about the family of 4 with little ones. Say the little ones are 5 or so. Still they can help somewhat but pretty much useless for hauling full ammo cans of 7.62 or 50 pound bags of rice etc. Do not forget the body armor for the little ones you know the vest, kevlar helmet, chem suit, gas mask, backpack, Oh you say they do not make such things for mini people. What do I do now! They surely do not make them for infants. Yes you can get the plastic bags you have seen on tv with the baby inside and a filter outside. COST?, Availability? ETC.

My whole point of this post is to get everyone to wake up and smell the roses or coffee or whatever you like. GOOD in the real world is not practical.

Neither is buying land just for teotwawki. The MAJORITY of people in the USA have lives that revolve around a JOB, HOUSE or HOME of some kind. You know that place where we have put up just the right drapes, got the flat screen on sale, carpet the right color etc. Sure a small minority of us who do not have a mortgage, loans of any kind, family nearby etc. can move to the middle of who knows where and live surrounded by bramble bushes, pyracantha, barbed wire, k Rails, berms, chickens, pigs, goats, geese, cows and any other live off my own livestock you can think of. I know that a MAJORITY of the people who prepare for GOOD or are thinking of living like I mentioned above would not be able to stomach slaughtering say even a rabbit or a pig let alone a cow. Yes I know that a lot of you are GREAT WHITE hunters and all that. But the Majority of you out there are NOT. Sure you may know how to process a deer or an elk but cows are not the same neither are pigs. I would say that maybe a few percent of Americans have even thought about slaughtering a pig or a cow let alone done it. Even a chicken is a tough nut. How many of you will hate the process of taking the feathers off the chicken every time you want some NUGGETS haha!

Now I do not know how many of you have been to the doctor lately or have taken your children to one for any number of reasons. Here is just a couple of my recent trips to people who "PRACTICE" medicine. Remember I live very close to this BIG hospital with all the electronic crap you can think of, a state of the art facility, if there is such a thing.
I woke up with a pain in my chest, and both arms were a little numb. I passed it off as nothing but age and went to work(I know DUMB). When I got home from work it had progressed throughout the day to the point where I could not stand it much longer. Was it my heart or what? My wife said we are going to the ER and off we went. After 2 hours of many hookups to and run through of machines that are NOT in my BOB or any of my backpacks or bins or boxes or ammo cans, with a hospital full of doctors to consult, nurses, pharmacy etc I was told that I had pleurisy. Look it up. They gave me, after I almost went postal on them some IV drug for the still severe pain (2 hours no pain relief in a hospital ). Thank you lord and I was once again a sane man. Now I do not know how far from a facility like the one I describe you want to be but all the stuff I have put away for that all important time of TEOTWAWKI was USELESS. Sure you can breakout the Medical CD or the book on what if medical emergencies. What if that had been you or your child. Are you going to sit there waiting for a miracle to appear on the screen of your KINDLE or whatever that says you are going to live you have pleurisy? NO!

Here is another scene that can not be cured with stuff from my vast stores of survival items or yours for that matter. Before I go any farther I am NOT a klutz or prone to accidents, sickly or the such these events happened over many years. OK. I was going down to the basement to get a jar of creamer for the coffee. I got the creamer and as I was leaving the room I kicked a picture frame you know the kind with glass covering the picture. (Picture was one of the items at the time we were selling on the Internet and should not have been on the floor) OK when I kicked the frame a piece of glass shaped like a large knife blade stuck me in just the right spot, severing my artery, tendons and nerves for my left leg about 4 inches above my ankle. Well I knew how to plug the spurting hole no problem, I could even walk up the stairs doing so. I got to the kitchen no problem and informed the wife about my little trip and told here to call 911. She did and the Fire Dept., always first on the scene what would we do without them???? The paramedic wrapped me up and then the ambulance arrived. I told the fire dudes thank you and the ambulance no thank you and the wife drove me to the hospital. Mistake number one was not going in the ambulance. Not because I started to leak or anything like that the fire guy did a great job. No because if you arrive in an ambulance they see you FIRST and FAST and you do not have to wait with the colds and flu and such crowd. Well live and learn. I hobbled inside to a FULL waiting room and was asked to wait. When I got to see a person who asked what my problem was I told her that I had severed an artery and that the firemen had patched me up. Well what do I know about my condition, I am just a layman not a medical dude. So I was sent back out with the masses to wait. Now where was all that blood going that was leaking into the muscle and tissue of my lower leg and foot? It had to go somewhere. Now prior to the blood filling up my lower leg I had no pain since the nerves were cut. But as the blood slowly filled up my leg those nerves still working started to make it very uncomfortable for me. After 1 hour and 30 minutes I was seen and the doctor said as he washed his hands please take off you bandage so I can take a look at you leg. I told him that would not be a good idea and he insisted so I complied, ruining his nice white shirt and I am sure an expensive tie. He promptly told me to PUT MY FINGER ON IT while he went for some new bandage. Long story shorter, After emergency surgery by a Neurological surgeon, Orthopedic surgeon and a Vascular surgeon and three days in the hospital I was out of a JOB and laying on my ASS in bed. 3 months later I could get around with a cane and got a new JOB. Now I do not know about all of you folks out there but I do not have any of those types of doctors in any of my stuff. In fact I do not have ANY doctors in my stuff DO YOU? My point is this SHIT HAPPENS even to the best prepared person in the world. No little book or bag of medical supplies is going to prevent or help with anything that occurs on a regular basis to real people like I have just related to you. Sure you can be careful and live in a bubble but you are going to need a real doctor at some point. PERIOD! Not a medic or a buddy but a REAL Doctor and more than one sometimes.

My whole point is GOOD is only practical on a temporary basis, IE hurricane, flood, fire etc. If you really think that you can live without the trappings of modern civilization FOREVER guess again. Not gonna happen. The life expectancy as pointed out on some survival sites was 18 or so years for the native peoples and in the 1900's 48 was the average for American men. The rate was only 65 or so for men in the 1960's. Only through modern advances in such things as medicine, clean water, safe food, heating and air conditioning have our lives been extended to the 70's or so. Remember that guy who was wanted for bombing abortion clinics who was a SURVIVALIST, they found him eating out of a dumpster behind a STORE.

You can not carry enough food to live forever or even a year in a car, pickup, truck with a trailer along with everything else in our bags of tricks. Ever weigh the year supply of food you have put away? How about the space it takes up? Lets see here is a short list of stuff the average survival person has put away. Maybe not average but you get the idea.

1. #10 cans of food
2. ammo for all the firearms 1000 rounds each
3. the firearms themselves
4. fuel and the cans that hold them (propane, gas, diesel etc.)
5. medical stuff, not pills just fixing stuff
6. clothing for all climates, boots etc.
7. temp shelter, tents and the such
8. sleeping bags, cots, or ground mat etc.
9. backpacks full of who knows what you might need
10. body armor if you have it
11. water for use until you get where?
12. sanitation supplies, tp, kotex, soap, shampoo, towels, wash clothes etc.
14. medicine you might need, does it require refrigeration?
15. barter stuff, ammo, magazines and the such not included above
16. portable stove
17. pots, pans, dishes, utensils unless you intend to eat out of the #10 cans or foil bags
18. tools for vehicle repair gear repair, ax, saw, ETC.
19. spare parts for the vehicle unless yours never breaks down
20. coolers for preserving that food you will shoot in the wild, where do you get the ICE?
21. solar panels for charging all the stuff
22. Batteries of all kinds and do not forget the vehicle kind

Well you get the idea. I got tired of listing stuff. Now think about where you are going to put all this stuff in the car or whatever you drive and remember that for every person you have just multiply by that number. Just the #10 cans alone will get out of hand. That reminds me you need room for the most important thing THE PEOPLE!

So here is my advice for all who want to GOOD. Do it only if you have to and on a temporary basis. Unless you want to abandon all the stuff you can not carry with you. The best thing I can offer all of you is this. If you live in a major city with groups of folks and you can afford to find someplace on the outskirts or in a place that would not be among the poorer population or near them MOVE! Otherwise you can stick it out like the Korean business owners did during the Rodney King Riots and stood their ground and saved their businesses. You could save your home the same way if you feel it would be worth it. But in the case of a Hurricane, flood, fire or other NATURAL disaster just pack the minimum and GOOD. You will come back later and clean up.

I know I have not covered all the bases of GOOD but I think this is a realistic look at the entire idea of GOOD. By the way if you live in Dodge City Kansas stay put you will be fine.

Mark Kent